This letter is concerning the argument between the Veterans Memorial Museum and the Lewis County Historical Society over the M3 Stuart tank.
I hate to see monies that are donated by interested supportive citizens of both museums be expended on court costs over this issue.
It seems to me common sense decrees such a huge museum piece belongs in the surroundings that most closely represents its created and historically active purpose.
The tank represents the honorable military service of Lewis County’s military veterans. Isn’t that why the Veterans Museum was founded? That is its very focus and purpose, is it not?
The tank is still in the county. It’s still in Chehalis, too. There is no historical precedent for a Stuart tank in Lewis County’s history that I ever heard of. So what’s the historical significance to the county?
It could only historically and reasonably represent the county’s veterans who so bravely served our nation. Where more appropriate a location than the Veterans Memorial Museum that was founded for that very purpose?
After all, that is why the Historical Museum originally “gave-loaned-transferred” the Stuart to the Veterans Museum in the first place, isn’t it?
Al Denison
Centralia
